The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1887-02-11
FALSE ECONOMY.
The Cost OF Using Cheap Articies-Secret
of Saving Money.

The most extravaganza living is cheap
living. A meal of tho very cheapest
food is very apt to be n meal 81 some
poor quality OF provision. A meal of
rich food gives little or no strength to
body or mind. Your strength of body
and mind Is your main stock in trade.
1t has value in dollars and cents. A
steady diet of poor food may make you,
if not '.sck a-bed." sick on your feet,
sick while ut your business, lessen your
snap and vigor. and so lose you money.
Cheap things, when they are poor
things Gas in most cases they are), cost
far more than good things. You buy
cheap trunk. 1t bursts asunder in COM
pliancc with the effort and prayer of
the baggage-siingcr, betrays secrets,
lets cats out of tho bag, and so costs far
more money, and pains besides, than q
good one. You buy suit of cheap
clothes. They look cheap TO commence
| with. 1t is not good business recon-
| mendation to "look cheap" In three
weeks the gloss is worn off. They fade
| rs leaf. In six weeks they look rs
much worn as really good texture of
cloth would be in four months. You
pay for two suits of clothes moro than
for one good one. You get from them
neither wear, quality, OF style. You do
get second or third-ratc recommends
| ton from them to that class of people
who judge man by tho lent OF his
jib," and, grumble at it as much as you
may, these arc n very necessary class OF
people to make good impression on.
So cheap dressing is very cxtravagant
dressing.
Economy means the purchase and use
of the very best articles, so as to get the
very best out of them. A sick horse
may be bought for a little money, to be
of little of or no use, u care on your
mind, an expense to your pocket, and a
bringer to you of nothing but worry.
This is an extravaganza horse. Com
petition, which seeks to lower the price
of everything, is the death of trade. 1t
cuts down lower and lower until Mt last
no profit is left anyone. Then the fac
tory stops. The workman has nothing
to do. The boss fails, absconds, or goes
into other business. Competitive cheap
labor does not tend to make artists. 1t
does tend to make imitators, copyists,
and counterfeits. A skilled needle
woman-one who took an artistic pride
in her work-said TO me after weeks
experience i'm one of New York's great
retail bazaars. where scores of cheap
dresses Sin the latest style" were turned
out daily: There is no encouragement
in our workshop for good, careful, pains
taking work. The girl who can rush
the most thread through the most yards
of cloth, and turn out the most dresses
in reality not much more than basted
together, is the one best praised and
best paid by her employer" When you
buy such Il dress YOU encourage tho
making of shams, limitations, counter
feits. You encourage work done with
out conscience, and only for cash. You
discourage honesty. You discourage
the doing of work in which should be
put brains, skill, care, conscience, and
time. That is another name for artistic
work. You arc helping on fraud. You
help rascality. You oppose yourself TO
justice and fair dealing If you buy
where you can buy the cheapest, with
out regard to anything save the getting
of an article for the least possible
money, you arc encouraging fraud and
injustice.
| You complain that your labor is lily
paid. Yet when you hunt f0rthe cheap
est article and patronize the man de-
termined to sell lower than all you arc
putting money in the pocket of the man
whose policy it is TO cut down lower
and lower the price of everything he
sells. Ii you are making brooms for a
living and he is selling them, it Is his
aim to force you, directly or indirectly,
to make your brooms for the least pos
sible money. The world of manu-
facturc is now engaged in the endeavor
to make everybody do its work for rs
little money MS possible in making rs
good an article us possible. When you
go into the manufacture of shoes or hats
you set your wits at work to get other
peoples labor for the least possible
money in making those shoes or hats.
You want the work done and raw ma
tcriai raised for you and brought to you
for the least possible money. You
don't care whether Tom. Dick, or Har-
ry, who grows the article. or prepares
1t, or freights it to you, gets fair price
for his work or not. You don't care
how they live or whether they get
enough to eat or wear. You don't
know them. You don't want to know
/ A. a Al a..